CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

U.S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper did everything but sing "Kumbaya"
last month when he tried to clear away a Democratic
gubernatorial primary with a proposal for a unity ticket
of Lt. Gov. John C. Carney Jr. for governor and
Treasurer Jack A. Markell for lieutenant governor.

The deal faltered when Markell could not be
guaranteed he would not wind up in another primary for
lieutenant governor, and Carper put the effort on hold.

"I think it's best right now for me to step back. We
worked very hard to do what we thought was best for
Delaware and the people involved. We came pretty close.
We've still got 18 months," he said.

Carper wryly acknowledged there was another way to
reduce the intramural rivalries for Carney, Markell and
other Democratic up-and-comers, not that he was
advocating it.

"They'd like to push Joe and me and the governor off
a cliff," Carper said.

Maybe they would . . . as long as they did not get
caught. Committing felony murder means never being able
to run for higher office.

Because of Carper, U.S. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and
Gov. Ruth Ann Minner on the Democratic side and U.S.
Rep. Michael N. Castle on the Republican side, no one
else has broken into the state's top political ranks
since the 1980s.

Even now, only the governor has her political exit
planned. Minner, who is 72, intends to retire when her
second term ends in January 2009. Biden, who is 64, has
shown a certain willingness to leave the Senate at the
same time, although he wants a mandate from the rest of
the country to do it.

Castle, who will be 68 in July, is up for re-election
for a new two-year term in 2008. Carper, who turned 60
in January, is in the early months of a six-year term
that will take him to the 2012 election.

Both Castle and Carper are bumping up against what is
known in Delaware as the "John Williams Rule." It is
named for the late John J. Williams, a Republican who
served in the U.S. Senate from 1947 to 1971. He said no
one should run for the Congress if it meant serving
beyond 70 years of age, and he set the example by
retiring instead of running when he was 66 in 1970.

Castle, who said last year he thought Williams "had
it right," seems likely to fudge the rule and run again
at least in 2008. Another term would leave him in the
House of Representatives until he is 71.

Carper is believed to have offered to follow the John
Williams Rule if it would secure the deal between Carney
and Markell. If all worked as planned, it would mean
that Markell would be positioned to run for an open U.S.
Senate seat in 2012 after four years as lieutenant
governor.

Until now, there has not been so much as an inkling
in the state's political circles that Carper, who is
youthful enough and competitive enough to have broken
his foot when he ran a half-marathon a day after playing
volleyball in March, contemplated anything except
decades more in office.

Carper only hedged when he was asked Monday in a
brief interview about the John Williams Rule. "I haven't
thought about it. Should I? In the United States Senate,
if you're 70, you're still a teen-ager," he said.

Carper did say he has no intention of becoming
another Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina Republican who
was still a senator when he turned 100, or even another
Robert C. Byrd, a West Virginia Democratic senator who
will be 90 in November.

For Carper, maybe 90 is the new 70. Call it the
"Robert Byrd Rule."

# # #

The Republicans did not allow any press coverage last
week when Mitt Romney brought his presidential campaign
here for a pricey fund-raiser followed by a rally at a
guarded estate in Chateau Country.

The Democrats willingly filled in for the Republicans
by issuing a press release. It was headlined, "During
money trip to Delaware, Romney hides from voters, the
press and the issues of Iraq and immigration."

The Republicans are bringing in Rudy Giuliani next
week. There is no word yet about whether they will let
the Democrats handle the press relations this time, too.